WOOD RESEARCH Volume 61, Number 6, 2016
Bo-Han Xu, Yan-Hua Zhao, Jing-Hua Guo, and Ya-Xun Wang

Fracture toughnesses of interlaminar fracture of glued-laminated timber

Critical strain energy release rate GC and stress intensity factor KC are both defined as fracture toughness, and they can be converted to one another through an equivalent elastic modulus for wood fracture. Whereas the equivalent elastic modulus for interlaminar fracture toughness of glued-laminated timber (glulam) is kept unknown. This paper briefly presented Modes I and II interlaminar fracture toughnesses of glulam, which were obtained from double cantilever beam (DCB) and three-point bending end-notched flexure (3ENF) tests using finite element method (FEM). On the basis of Hankinson-type formula and equivalent elastic modulus of wood fracture, this study developed two empirical expressions to calculate the equivalent elastic moduli for Modes I and II interlaminar fracture of glulam.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 65, Number 2, 2020
Bo-Han Xu, Ke Liu, and Abdelhamid Bouchaïr

Mechanical properties and set recovery of compressed poplar with glycerin pretreatment

In order to improve the mechanical properties of low-density wood, the densified wood was fabricated. Northeast China fast-growing poplar was firstly immersed in 50% glycerin for 24 h, and then compressed under 150°C to attain 60% compression ratio with different thermal modification time (0.5, 1, and 2 h). The set recovery, modulus of elasticity (MOE), modulus of rupture (MOR) and hardness of compressed wood were tested to assess the influence of thermal modification time and wet/dry cycles on mechanical properties and set recovery of compressed poplar with glycerin pretreatment. It can be found that the thermal modification time of 1 h can be more appropriate, the first wet/dry cycle has a significant effect on mechanical properties and set recovery of compressed wood due to the dilution of glycerin during the soaking.